Composer Press Documents

These are really some of the hardest studies I have ever come across, but they are always interesting, very imaginative musically speaking, and definitely something that will improve a good player’s technique even more, as they do enter into musical realms that I have not seen before.

You could say big orchestra sound and mythology were made for each other: after all, both are the stuff of grand proportion that often transcend time and place. The Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, a Centretown institution entertaining classical music lovers in one iteration or another since 1965, certainly knows how well the two can work together. That’s why it’s starting off the 2022-23 season with Music & Mythology on Nov. 20—and there’s plenty to get excited about.
One of the major highlights of this concert, though, is sure to be the world premiere of Canadian composer Andrew Paul MacDonald’s The Triumph of Saraswati. Inspired by the Hindu goddess of music, knowledge, art, speech, wisdom and learning, this double concerto features soloists Catherine Meunier on marimba and Shawn Mativetsky on tabla. The tabla, a pair of twin hand drums with origins on the Indian subcontinent and not an instrument typically utilized in an orchestral setting, creates an intriguing arrangement and offers a truly global experience that music lovers of all kinds will not want to miss.

Canadian composer Andrew Paul MacDonald has attempted something unprecedented in the two original compositions featured on the album “Music of the City and the Stars”: a fusion of electric guitar and a string ensemble. There is a noticeable difference between the two instruments, but this is exactly why the album’s overarching theme works so well.
The first concerto is Lyra, a seven-movement work that recounts the history of the lyre in Greek mythology. The work begins with Apollo’s conception of the instrument, follows Orpheus in his many musical endeavours, and ends with Zeus’s installation of a memorial to the late Orpheus. The natural echo of the string ensemble is less powerful than the amplified reverberation of the electric guitar, a distinction that allows the guitar to play the role of the lyre against the “setting” of the ensemble. This is particularly noteworthy in Orpheus and Hades, where the violins chime in with sharp stings to generate a hostile, foreign atmosphere.
The companion concerto Restless City is jazz-inspired, and more tonally complex as a result. It is not as straightforward an experience as Lyra, but it is still impressive for its ability to unify the disparate instruments.

String Quartet and jazz guitar is an unusual and intriguing combination which MacDonald has the composition skills and the guitar chops to pull off very well.
… beautiful harmonies … much lively interplay between the guitar and the quartet … sometimes lighthearted and at other times intense. “Music of the City and the Stars” is a thoughtful and entrancing collaboration.

In the context of Montreal’s International First Peoples’ Festival, Andrew Paul MacDonald has been recruited by Normand Forget, artistic director of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, to create an orchestral link between the NEM, the guitar ensemble Forestare and three figures illustrating the cultural energy of the First Nations – Anachnid, Laura Niquay and Q-052 will be the soloists of a new concert, given on Wednesday August 4, 8pm, at Montrteal’s Place des Festivals.
Originally from Guelph, the Sherbrooke resident is a trained composer and performer. He studied music theory and piano with Rosemarie Hamilton and guitar with Alexandre Lagoya, Michael Lorimer, Ray Sealey and Manuel Lopez-Ramos. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1981, where he was a student of Arsenio Girón and Alan Heard.
He pursued graduate studies in composition at the University of Michigan, where he earned a Master of Music (1982) and a Doctor of Musical Arts (1985). At UM, he was a student of William Albright, William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett and George Balch Wilson. Returning to Canada in 1985, his teaching career took him to Manitoba and Quebec. In 1987, he became a tenured professor at Bishop’s University, where he continues to teach composition and electronic music. Among his projects as a musician is the Ensemble Musica Nova, of which he is the artistic director.  In addition to teaching and composing, he works as a classical and/or electric guitarist and also as a conductor.
Needless to say, this cross-cultural mission represents a more than interesting challenge for Andrew Paul MacDonald.

PAN M 360: How did you approach this project?

ANDREW PAUL MACDONALD: This is something very new for me. I have been composing for a long time, symphonies, string quartets, you name it, and I have done a lot different kinds of projects, like this piece for the Evergreen Club in Toronto, a concerto for harp and gamelan… and many other projects from traditional to very different things, but I’ve never come across something like this. What I think would be best is that I talk about it. Normand Forget approached me and I had very little time to do it. Thankfully, I was free at the time – pandemic – and I was ready for a new project. In another time it would have been impossible because my agenda would have been too busy. So Normand asked me to write a piece for these First Nation singers, Anachnid, Laura Niquay, and Q-052 (Quentin Quando) and combine this piece with NEM and Forestare. Originally, the aim was to have a very portable piece that could pop up on a stage in any city or event. So he gave me the instrumentation, time limitations, and he had some songs from those First Nations to reimagine inside my own work. Very similar to the way the late Hans Zender reimagined Schubert’s Winterreise.

PAN M 360: How is it constructed?

Andrew Paul MacDonald: Is it an arrangement? No it’s not. It’s a reimagining, it’s composing, deconstructing, reassembling and coming out with something new. We also must talk about the title that I have, the lyrics and the music itself. The original title was Transmission Connection, the name of the NEM project, to bring NEM, Forestare, First Nation artists and a Canadian anglophone composer who lives in Quebec, so we involved different cultures in Québec, and different types of music – First Nations rap, pop electronic, and folk-rock, combined with new contemporary music. Very challenging!

PAN M 360: So, three songs are the basic materials of the composed reimagining. Can you explain what you did with those songs?

Andrew Paul MacDonald: My piece Frames of Reference is a part of this bringing together in Transmission Connection but also Frames of Reference is a particular set of ideas or beliefs on what you base your judgement of things. Considering the artists I was working with, I felt that we must better understand what the First Nations people have experienced – residential schools, genocide crisis, etc. – and what they’re currently going through, and very importantly, to stand up and speak out about injustice. So there is a kind of a political bent in this piece. We can’t avoid it. One of the lines in the earlier refrain in the piece is this: “Silence is violence in your ear, change up your frame of reference, don’t let these terrible crimes be overlooked, stand up and speak out now.” I think that is a pretty powerful refrain, imperative.

PAN M 360: Let’s be more specific with each song.

Andrew Paul MacDonald: Right. 

The original lyrics are done by Quentin Condo in his rap section, called “Q-052’s Rap Movement”, an edgy rap about residential school, genocide, and more generally, problematic government relations with the First Nations. It’s rapped in English and Micmac, there is a certain part of improvisation in this composition, leaving it up to the artists a little bit. In this first rap that Quentin does, we work things out properly between music and lyrics. I love his freestyle rapping section at the end of the piece, which combined with a singer’s improvisation. I will be unique each time they will be performing that piece.

There is also this song by the Oji-Cree singer, songwriter and producer Anachnid – her full name is Anna-Khesic Kway Harper. Her song is a pop song but… on the surface, it’s a love relationship breakup, and on another level, it is an analogy of the First Nations relationship with the rest of Canada. “You got the best of me / Trapped in your lies and your disgards / Stop it, don’t waste my time / Set me free, release me / Stop playing games with me…” So you’ve got to read it in both ways, and that fits very very well in the aesthetic of this whole work.

And then there is Laura Niquay’s song called “Moteskano”, which means “the past of our ancestors”, this a rock song about the First Nations pride and who they are. The lyrics are sung in Atikamekw, here is one quote translated: “I understood that she (my mother) was an inspiration in my life, my guide in life, it is a transmission, a way of life for future generations, let’s walk the path of our ancestors.”

PAN M 360: So how are all those elements superimposed in the final piece?
Andrew Paul MacDonald: I designed the piece for about 20 minutes, the piece is done in seven sections. The first one is a prelude, aggressive and imperative, with vocal interruptions. The second is Q-052’s rap, so I studied rap litterature very carefully, Run the Jewels, Snoop Dog, Eminem, etc. Quentin wrote the lyrics and I include a refrain. The third movement is called “Interlude One”, a big contrast to previous movements, slow, trippy… The fourth movement is Anachnid’s “La Lune”, a gentle love song with a double meaning that we discussed, and it has a static quality. The fifth movement is “Interlude 2”, an aggressive variation of the first interlude. The sixth movement is Laura Niquay’s “Moteskano”, an energetic reimagining of her rock song with a ground bass pattern. It continues with the last movement “Rave Up”, including improvisation, freestyle rap. A huge, energetic conclusion.  And I must say that I am really honoured to have those three artists’ songs in my composed reimagining.

PAN M 360: So including those differents style in a cohesive piece was a challenge. 

Andrew Paul MacDonald: Totally! Frame of Reference is a composed reimagining. I took those original songs apart, and I reassembled them, stretching, compressing, interrupting from different angles, turning them upside down, and all done with respect to the original forms and sentiments. I want the artists to sing what they are accustomed to. I didn’t want to mess around their pitch and their rhythm and then destroy the original aesthetic.

I also extracted motives from musical ideas in their song, in order to generate the rest of the musical material of the composition, including some instrumental parts in the piece. I find some key motivic ideas in each song, or even the rap. I also took from their traditional work certain rhythm patterns, certain melodic patterns, essentially pentatonic. I wanted to play with those elements tied into the history. So the instrumental section of the piece becomes a huge commentary on the songs themselves, to make the whole composition have a greater meaning.

PAN M 360: Happy with this very special experience?

Andrew Paul MacDonald: Very very eye-opening. I learned a lot about First Nations culture, conditions, concerns, and I hope that more people will learn about it as well.

Saxophones are rare birds in classical music, but the stage at Southam Hall has seen a gaggle of them in the past six weeks. After sightings at NACO performances of Kurt Weill and Ravel, the sax was the star attraction at the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra Monday evening.
The program revolved around the world premiere of a concerto for tenor saxophone by Canadian composer Andrew Paul MacDonald. Entitled The Orchid Garden, the OSO commission is built on a familiar five-note theme by Charlie Parker and makes extensive use of improvisation.
MacDonald has created a spectacular showcase for both soloist (the astonishing Jeremy Brown) and orchestra. His writing is dense but somehow catchy, exploiting the sax’s entire tonal range. The orchestration is complex, yet subtle. MacDonald’s a master illusionist, combining weird effects from the woodwinds with layers of percussion to produce a kind of elusive “third sound,” making you wonder how it’s done. The lush slow movement is especially evocative, like Ravel on a tropical island vacation.
Brown’s performance was a dazzling display of classical discipline and agility combined with a jazz artist’s freedom and sense of exploration. To get through the piece’s marathon fluttering phrases, Brown uses circular breathing — essentially inhaling through his nose while exhaling through his mouth, an advanced, prized technique that never fails to impress.

MacDonald has set the unpretentiously eloquent libretto to music that is essentially tonal but which vividly captures both the lyricism of young love and the brutality of war without descending to mawkishness or rodomontade. The wordsetting, too, is clear and idiomatic.

A devoted servant of the drama, his [MacDonald’s] music responds nimbly and vividly to both text and subtext. Mary’s Wedding is the first work Pacific Opera Victoria can really call its own, having been intimately involved in its development from the commission, in 2008, to the première, which took place Thursday evening at the McPherson Playhouse. The company’s hands-on attention has resulted in an opera that it can be proud of and that merits a future in the repertory.
It is based on Stephen Massicotte’s popular 2002 play of the same name, set in Saskatchewan in 1920 and dramatizing the dreams of Mary, who, on the eve of her wedding, remembers her first love, the farmboy Charlie, and the letters he sent her while serving during the First World War in France, where he died in battle.
Massicotte himself crafted a libretto that is eventful but also tight and well-paced, if not especially poetic or melody-friendly, and composer Andrew Paul MacDonald, working in an accessible, versatile tonal idiom, has been a devoted servant of the drama, his music responding nimbly and vividly to both text and subtext.
It helps that MacDonald, whose oeuvre comprises mostly instrumental music, is a skilful, imaginative orchestrator, able to deploy a generous palette of tonal colours in often busy accompaniments, without smothering or drawing focus from the voices. In the pit, three dozen members of the Victoria Symphony (three of them manning an unusually large percussion battery) are conducted with passion and deep commitment by POV artistic director Timothy Vernon.
There is a portion of merely workaday recitative here and there, especially during expository passages, but as the drama becomes more complicated and emotionally urgent, the music becomes more interesting, original and compelling. There are ardent surges of lyricism underscoring the romance of Mary and Charlie, several elegiac episodes and some impressively powerful specimens of battle music. The level of musical inspiration actually seems to rise as the opera progresses and is especially high at the end of each act.
The story takes place within Mary’s mind, so the action moves often and quickly between times and places; in MacDonald’s score, these transitions are convincing and seamless. One also detects, at times, the outlines of conventional operatic numbers – arias, duets and, most obviously, big choral set pieces.
Indeed, the 20-person chorus gets some of the most effective music in the opera. It was MacDonald’s decision to add a chorus to Mary’s Wedding, to embody minor characters only mentioned in the play, and the opera seems frankly inconceivable without it: It brings welcome variety of texture, both dramatically and musically, without compromising the essential intimacy of the story.

Though the whole opera is set in Mary’s dream, the setting often changes — from the field where the two young lovers met, to the front lines of the war. Set designer Ian Rye deserves accolades for the creation of a very versatile set, featuring three undulating ramps which effectively portray the vastness of the Canadian prairies, the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean and the abysmal craters of no-man’s land on the front lines of battle.
But the set doesn’t bring you there on its own. The music, by award-winning Canadian composer Andrew P. MacDonald, seamlessly moves from one scene to another forming a complete continuous piece with love themes and battle songs intertwined. The augmented percussion section is a welcome addition and an essential part of bringing the battle scenes to life.
The chorus and the principle role of Sergant Flowerdew (bass Alain Coulombe) are thoughtful additions on the behalf of MacDonald, who uses both to add layers and texture to the whole. The chorus allows some of the supporting characters who are only mentioned in the play a chance to shine in the opera, bringing Mary’s neighbours and Charlie’s comrades to life.

Two pieces by Canadian composers, and guess what? Each was well received by the Ottawa Symphony’s audience Monday evening. First was the Carnival Overture by Oskar Morawetz (1917-2007), who spent virtually all of his working life in Toronto. This piece was written just for the fun of it, with no expectation of having it performed. Happily, it came to the attention of conductor Sir Ernest MacMillan, who premiered it on Dominion Day 1946. It’s a well-crafted, cheery piece, if a little short of being memorable. Conductor David Currie led a well-played and spirited account.
  Next came a piece that was memorable without qualification, Andrew P. MacDonald’s 1991 Violin Concerto. MacDonald, born in 1958, is a well-established composer whose music is frequently performed. It is in the traditional three movements, but with some differences. The first movement follows a slow-fast-slow scheme and since the movements are connected by cadenzas the concerto comes across almost like a symphonic poem. The orchestration is first-rate and the solo part is frequently dazzling. Happily, violinist Robert Uchida seemed entirely on top of its considerable technical and musical demands. Conductor Currie led the orchestra in a well-focused accompaniment, also no small achievement.

Robert Uchida will join the 100-piece Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Currie at the National Arts Centre Nov. 15 to perform Canadian composer Andrew MacDonald’s Violin Concerto. The 1991 piece won a Juno Award and has a personal connection for Uchida, who raves about the work.
MacDonald wrote the piece in 1991 for violinist David Stewart, who taught Uchida at the University of Ottawa School of Music and is concertmaster of the Ottawa Symphony. When the piece was recorded, it won the 1995 Juno award for best classical composition.
Uchida, who since 2006 has been concertmaster of Symphony Nova Scotia, performed the concerto with that orchestra last season. He says he considers it “one of the greatest Canadian pieces written for solo violin. This concerto has everything – from incredible virtuosic writing to sheer depth, lyricism and beauty. The orchestration is outstanding! It was written for and premiered by my former teacher David Stewart and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in 1991 so it certainly has a special place in my heart. I am delighted to share it with the Ottawa audience.”

The Verge Ensemble, one of the region’s most eclectic new-music groups, took a slight, um, verge away from its usual multi-instrumental, multimedia programs on Sunday afternoon to focus only on piano music. But the program also underscored how diverse the piano music of the past half-century has been, from the mathematical rigor of Karlheinz Stockhausen to the evocative tone-painting of Canadian composer Andrew MacDonald. And despite its title, MacDonald’s “After Dark” was no dreamy nocturne; this was a wild romp through an imagined world that comes alive in the moonlight, given a spectacular reading by Audrey Andrist.

The second piece was commissioned by the TSO specifically for this series, the theme of which was “Music Inspired by Words”. Composer Andrew Paul MacDonald took Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind and set the music around it. Literally. Actor Colm Feore read the poem during the piece, the words having been set into the score. Feore was “conducted”, his voice another instrument in the orchestra. It was very effective… Feore was miked, and the music very definitely supported this lovely, well-known poem. MacDonald spoke about this commission briefly before the performance which added to the audience’s understanding of the process and way that he had represented various elements of the poem musically.

Fully charged jazz that never lets up.

The band is free-flowing and wildly creative…this first release provides a pleasant and enthusiastic blend of several different styles adding up to a wonderful sampling of accessible jazz fusion. Check these guys out.

There was certainly no lack of the dramatic in Canadian composer Andrew P. MacDonald’s Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra, written for Newfoundland’s ECMA nominated Duo Concertante.
 The composer pitted the two soloists against each other and against the orchestra, brilliantly handling the seemingly Goliath task of balancing two delicate instruments with the massive orchestral forces.
 Violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves demonstrated playing characterized by outstanding clarity, expert technique and an intense energy that was sustained from start to finish.
 The orchestra played at its uninhibited best, showing that they could indeed play with fearless abandon. The piece demonstrated MacDonald’s masterful orchestral writing, an absolutely thorough understanding of the capabilities of each instrument.
The composer used a great variety of tone colours and a modern harmonic language to enhance a piece characterized by an aura of pervading restlessness and rhythmic intensity which was interrupted by only a few sporadic moments of calm.

The centerpiece of the evening with the premiere performance of Ontario-born composer Andrew MacDonald’s Double Concerto Op. 51 for violin, piano and orchestra…
 Any trepidation I may have had before Friday’s concert evaporated as MacDonald’s magnificent work unfolded. Roughly following a traditional fast-slow-fast layout, but all in one movement, the concerto invoked a broad and fertile range of orchestral textures and instrumental pairings.
 The first and closing sections offer a sort of angular antiphony of thematic material, in which the duo and various orchestral combinations play off each other. As exciting as all the florid developments and cadenzas were, however, some of the most inspired ideas were to be found in the slow section. At one point the bottom drops out of the texture as Dahn and principal flutist Michelle Cheramy answer back and forth on a single ethereal note. The motif later recurs in piano with flute, and then between soloists. It seems like such a simple idea, yet comes across as thoroughly ingenious.
As promised by the composer in his program notes, the concerto served well as a vehicle for Dahn’s and Steeves’ virtuosic talents, which were much in evidence Friday night. But MacDonald equally challenges the orchestral musicians to take full advantage of their instruments’ capabilities.
I could have left happy at the intermission…

MacDonald’s Pleiades Variations was inspired by the star cluster of that name, prominent in winter skies over the northern hemisphere. In a tribute to the seven-star constellation, the piece is formally divided into seven sections, each of which is a variation on a seven-note theme. The music is serene and mysterious, as befits the subject matter.
 The musicians’ playing is impeccable throughout, reveling in the warm, evocative combination of these instruments. Standouts include Shulman’s flawless flutter-tongue in the middle movement…

Andrew MacDonald’s Hermes of the Stars had the upper strings on their feet, rather like a period instrument band in the throws of Baroque gesture, which the piece’s veneer emulates.
 MacDonald was on hand to introduce his music, explaining its bond of classical Greek influences to his own musical syntax. The work resembles a concerto grosso for strings, … In three sections, Hermes of the Stars packs a fine emotional wallop.

It was an appealing opus, written in a mildly dissonant, accessible style. There was some energetic and exotic writing in the outer movements, but the highlight was the interior Hymn to a Deltaic God. This remarkable intermezzo, mixing frankly lyrical solo writingÉ with a gentle ostinato of abstract-sounding open intervals, could stand alone as an encore. Quarter-tone sequences worked nicely as special effects and the final chord was richly ambiguous.

I was prepared to dislike this work, as there are few contemporary works which I find pleasurable as aesthetic music experiences, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and craftsmanship. It is well written for the instruments and the Gryphon Trio performed dazzling pyrotechnics and fervent lyricism in their performance of this colourful piece.

In the Eagle’s Eye, Op. 37 is a superb piece by Andrew P. MacDonald. It is partly descriptive, but largely abstract, evoking exactly what the title suggests. Wednesday’s reading was only the third performance it has received, but one can confidently predict that it will receive many more.
… I will pass up no opportunity to hear more of his music, and suggest that you do likewise.

The opening with its horns both creates a strong atmosphere and gets the thematic discourse rolling. There is an earthy, peasant-flavored entry for the solo violin, craftily supported by the orchestra. At last, a Canadian composer for whom the expression ‘well orchestrated’ is not a euphemism for ‘musically empty’.
The tranquil second movement is effortlessly sustained, while a trace of Gypsy blood can be heard in the finale, with its angular rhythms. Violin writing is tough but idiomatic, with cadenzas that sound touched a bit by Ravel, a bit by Ysaye.
Canadian music? Well, we’ll take it.

MacDonald’s Violin Concerto, begun in 1987 and completed in 1991, sparkles with life, both in its brilliant writing for the soloist and its imaginative use of orchestral colour. If you want a parallel, my feeling is that MacDonald’s work has a closely-related uncle in the form of the Walton concerto: it shares the same sun-dappled textures, the same pervasive lyricism, the same concern with clarity. It is instantly appealing and ought to find favour with audiences wherever it is performed.

After Dark… by Mr. MacDonald was a descriptive piece which fit well with recent Halloween celebrations. “Procession of the Night Things” had an ominous beginning, alternating chords in the lowest octaves of the keyboard with delicate melodic lines in the upper-most keys. Ms. Andrist’s musical approach to the notes made the work accessible to all.

MacDonald’s enormously impressive Violin Concerto received its world premiere Tuesday evening from violinist David Stewart, with the MCO guest-conducted by Susan Haig, and on every count it showed itself as a work of character and quality. MacDonald’s syntax has that same sort of swashbuckling optimism Walton shows in his Violin Concerto, along with a similarly concentrated use of the orchestra where each melodic fragment has real relevance to the overall texture. The work is boldly scored, with the solo line felicitously virtuosic yet integrated into the whole, giving the sense of a taughtly symphonic structure throughout its three-sectioned single movement. There are influences but these are mixed to suggest a peculiarly individual landscape where sustained, slower moving colors are frequently found changing behind passages of much animation. Although the tone of the work is lean and muscular overall, there is plenty of appealingly Romantic sweep, but it is so skillfully managed that one never senses imbalances of mood or intent.

The title of Andrew P. MacDonald’s In the Garden of Gæa suggested a more earthbound view-Gæa being the goddess of the earth-but his eye was fixed on the bloody legends of the Titans, the Cyclopes, and Uranus, from whom sprang the lovely Aphrodite. No music could possibly tell that story, yet there is a narrative thrust to the work, and musical motifs that might well have been character-sketches. The pleasure in this work lay in MacDonald’s feeling for orchestral texture, which he expressed with considerable power.

The most interesting work of the evening was the Canadian premiere of Songs of Life’s Complaint by Canadian composer Andrew MacDonald. Dramatic and forceful, it powerfully communicated a feeling of anguish. The composer, who was present for the performance, has written some brilliant music for a large orchestra that makes a highly personal statement. It would be difficult to be unmoved by feelings of despair expressed by the composer.

The work, in total, was audacious, richly textured and as romantic in its way as the poems which inspired it.

Intellectual weight tipped the balance at last night’s concert, with only Andrew P. MacDonald’s Excursions for Flute Alone providing something light. Keri­Lynn Wilson provided the zest to make the puckish work playful and charming. Her performance was such that Excursions inspires images that are at once lyrical and phantasmagorical.